1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers or crates such as are required to ship perishable products including fruits, particularly peaches, vegetables, and seafood and particularly to a container that has reinforced end panels that enable the containers to be stacked without being crushed, resist water damage and which are amenable to manufacturing techniques that effect a reduction in manufacturing cost of the container.
2. Prior Art and Information Disclosure
Cellulose materials derived from wood have appeared in many forms such as panels for use in the construction and container industry.
In the construction industry, panels made from post consumer waste product such as newspaper have been used as interior walls of buildings in competition with sheetrock panels. These panels are typically thicker than three eighths of an inch and therefore break when bent. Such panels have a density in the range of 24-26 pounds per cubic foot and a tensile strength ranging from 400 to 700 psi. In the context of this specification, the term "fiberboard panel" will be understood to mean a panel composed of pressed fiber and which is greater than three eighths of an inch thick so that it is rigid. By rigid is meant that it will break when it is bent. A source of such material is the Homasote Co. located in West Trenton, N.J., a company that manufactures panels from recycled news print for the building industry.
In the container industry, cellulose fiber has been used for many years to make paper board panels which are assembled into boxes of many shapes and sizes. The industry commonly uses any one of three types of panels for making containers. One type may be referred to as "solid" paper board which is single ply and is typically a paperboard panel that is less than one eighth inch thick. A second type may be referred to as single wall corrugated paper board and comprises two opposing sheets of "solid" paperboard separated by a corrugation. A third type may be referred to as double wall corrugated paper board and comprises three opposing sheets of "solid" paperboard separated from one another by two corrugated media. In the context of this specification, the term "paperboard" will be understood to mean all of these three types of paperboard panels.
Needs of the Agriculture industry to ship perishable foodstuffs and store them for extended periods of time have lead to the development of specialized containers to meet these needs.
The containers have included the familiar "orange crates" which were strips of wood assembled into a box such that openings between the strips permitted circulation of air and the wooden frame construction of the crate conferred resistance to damage even when the boxes were stacked on one another.
Another development that had a great impact on the shipping of perishables was the introduction of containers assembled from corrugated paperboard impregnated with wax. The wax impregnated corrugated paper board provided resistance to water so that the containers could be located out in the field without concern that they would be damaged by exposure to the weather.
Yet another development in the industry was the appearance of boxes having a wooden frame around the panel edges with paperboard panels forming the sides of the box.
In spite of these advances in the container art, there continues to exist a strong interest in developing ever less expensive and more convenient containers for shipping and storing perishables, particularly fruits, vegetables, and seafood.